
What can we learn from current Divorce Statistics?
Financesonline.com recently posted 106 Divorce Statistics You Can’t Ignore: 2024: Divorce Rates and Impact on Children
Marriage represents the fairy tale ending every couple dreams of. It’s the time when they move their relationship to the next stage in a lifelong partnership defined by love and commitment. Unfortunately, life is no fairy tale, and marriages end all too often.
Key Insights:
The divorce rate has generally declined in recent years, with a significant drop during the COVID-19 pandemic when couples could spend more time together. Alarmingly however, incidents of domestic violence also increased among many couples.
Divorces can be financially burdensome, with costs varying significantly based on contested issues. Divorce can lead to financial instability and adverse effects on children, including increased likelihood of poverty and emotional stress.
Divorce rates vary widely by country and even within countries, with Russia having the highest rate and the Philippines prohibiting divorce. In the United Kingdom, the divorce rate is 8.9 divorces per 1,000 marriages. (Ghosh, 2020)
Women, particularly college-educated ones, are more likely to initiate divorces, and divorce rates among same-sex couples show a higher prevalence among female couples.
The average age of people undergoing a divorce for the first time is 30 years old. (McDowell, 2020). 8% of couples who marry before the age of 18 are likely to get a divorce within 10 years. (Wilkinson & Finkbeiner, 2020). Couples who marry young (20-25 years old) have a higher likelihood of divorcing, while the rate drops as couples age. 60% of divorces involve partners who are between 25 and 39 years old. (Lake, 2021). In the UK, the average age for divorce is 43.9 for women and 46.4 for men. (Yurday, 2021)
The top Marital Issues leading to Divorce are the lack of commitment with 75% of couples citing it as the reason for their separation. This is followed by infidelity (59.6%) and too much conflict and arguments (57.7%). Meanwhile, some married couples divorce because of domestic violence (23.5%), financial problems (36.1%), and substance abuse (34.6%). (Shaw, 2019). Almost 50% of couples with one alcoholic partner end up divorcing. Couples who have been living together prior to marriage face a 40% increase in the likelihood of divorce. (GillespieShields, 2020), and couples with only one spouse who smokes are 75% to 91% more likely to get divorced. (GillespieShields, 2020). 56% of couples cited addiction to pornography as a contributor to divorce. (Wilkinson & Finkbeiner, 2020). Finally, couples who have a baby seven months into the marriage are 24% less likely to divorce. (GillespieShields, 2020)
Divorce rates indicate that:
73% of 3rd marriages end in divorce
60% of 2nd marriages end in divorce, and
41% of 1st marriages end in divorce
Impact on Children: 26.5% of children below 21 years old have a parent living in a different home. This amounts to 21.9 million kids. (Grall, 2020). 30.1% of these kids are in poverty. (Grall, 2020). Happily married parents decrease their kids’ likelihood of divorce by 14%. (Wilkinson & Finkbeiner, 2020). Children of parents who fought a lot are more likely to get divorced themselves than kids with divorced parents. (McDowell, 2020)
